Religion, Religious Diversity and Tourism

Religious beliefs influence many aspects of daily life. It is therefore plausible to argue that these beliefs affect some of our most central endeavors, such as trade, migration, foreign investment and travel. This paper investigates the role a country's religious affiliation plays in destination choice for international tourism flows. To that end, a gravity model for international tourist arrivals is estimated by using a large dataset of 164 countries for the period 1995-2010. Results provide evidence that religious similarity have significant explanatory power in global tourism flows even after controlling for other measures of cultural affinity. Moreover, the presence of common religious minorities in the country has a positive impact on tourism flows. However, although religious pluralism foster tourism flows between countries, religious similarity has a stronger positive effect.